Doro @ Agora Theatre and Ballroom, Cleveland, Ohio 10-14-14

There are not many artists I would get in the car and drive over 3 hours to see in a rainstorm. However, Doro is one of those artists. BackstageAxxess made the trek to the infamous Agora in Cleveland to take in the Metal Queen herself. Doro took the stage at 10:30pm and played a shade over 2 hours and a whopping 23 songs.

Decked out in her traditional black leather, Doro took command as the band started to play the first chords to the Warlock classic “I Rule the Ruins.” Doro doesn’t stray from her roots as the set was heavy with Warlock songs (13 songs in all). She connected immediately with the crowd by telling them how much she loved playing in Cleveland and remembers playing with Megadeth back in 1988.

Doro’s band has remained intact for a number of years now. They are Johnny Dee on drums, Nick Douglas on bass, Harrison Young on keyboards, Bas Maas and Luca Princiotta on guitar. The band sounded extremely tight and continues to flourish every time I see them. Luca enjoyed some soloing during the tune “The Night of the Warlock.” Johnny Dee was very entertaining during his solo and even played a short snippet of the KISS classic “I Love it Loud.” Dee and Douglass have both been with Doro for over 20 years so it’s hard to find a better rhythm section than these two.

They truly provide Doro the ability to go off the cuff and take fan requests; as she did during her encore.

Doro did include a few ballads in her set. The standards “Fur Immur” and “Love Me in Black” were played. She also threw in a few covers including Judas Priest’ “Breaking the Law” and the Ronnie James Dio song “Egypt (The Chains Are On)” which she recorded for her recent release “Raise Your Fist” deluxe edition.

Doro continues to defy time as her voice still sounds the same as it did 30 years ago when Warlock’s first album “Burning the Witches” was released. There isn’t another artist of her caliber that I can think of after performing a 2 hour plus show, who would then come out and spend over and hour and half with her fans. This included taking photos and signing whatever was thrown in front of her. THIS IT’S HOW IT’S DONE PEOPLE! Gratitude and appreciation is what Doro has shown to her fans and her fans have retuned it ten fold. It’s truly a bond that has been formed over the past 30 years that Doro will do whatever she can to keep intact!

Setlist:

I Rule the Ruins (Warlock cover)
Earthshaker Rock (Warlock cover)
Burning the Witches (Warlock cover)
Fight for Rock (Warlock cover)
The Night of the Warlock
Raise Your Fist
Evil
Without You (Warlock cover)
Metal Tango (Warlock cover)
True as Steel (Warlock cover)
Fur Immur (Warlock cover)
Metal Racer (Warlock cover)
Out of Control (Warlock cover)
Drum solo (I Love it Loud snippet)
Wacken Hyme (We are the Metalheads) (Skyline cover)
Love Me in Black
Breaking the Law (Judas Priest cover)
All We Are (Warlock cover)